"Gripís" Historical Souvenir
of Cortland
on the 76th Regiment

"Gripís" Historical Souvenir of Cortland is a book published
by ďGripĒ in 1899. It contained biographies of the prominent men, organizations
and businesses of Cortland, along with photographs of the city, historical
notes, and oddities like lists of rivers and jokes. The following is one of
three regimental histories in the volume (the others being the 157th
and 185th NY).

The 76th
Regiment was mustered in at Albany, December, 1861, and served with marked
gallantry throughout the war, being mustered out along in 1865 after Appomattox
and after participating in the grand review of troops at Washington, which
marked the termination of the war. Eight hundred men were enlisted in Cortland
county and at the same time about five hundred troops formed into five
companies, were recruited in Otsego county, leaving Cherry Valley for Albany
early in January. When the two bodies were marshaled into one phalanx the
governor made N. W. Green of Cortland, colonel, and the regiment was ordered to
New York, taking their departure from Albany on Jan. 17, 1862. They were in
barracks in New York three days, then on Riker's Island, East River, until they
left for Philadelphia, where they arrived Jan. 30, 1862, reaching Washington
Feb. 1, at midnight and going into camp at Meridian Hill, where they remained
until the 24th, when they occupied Forts DeRussey, Massachusetts, Totten and
Slemmer. Col. Green was sent home on charges preferred by the officers and
Lieut. Col. Shaul was placed in command.

On May
21, the regiment was ordered to Fredericksburg and assigned to Brig.-Gen.
Abner Doubleday's brigade-the 2nd, of the First Division, First Corps,
Army of Potomac. On July 2 Col. William P. Wainwright was assigned to command
the regiment. On the 21st of August the regiment, in the fight at Rappahannock
Station, Va., was for the first time under fire. On Aug. 28 the regiment played
a most thrilling part of the drama in the battle of Gainesville, where they
lost ten killed, seventy-two wounded and eighteen missing.

During
the next two days the regiment participated in continuous manoeuvering and
fighting at second Bull Run and South Mountain. In the bloody battle of
Gettysburg Major Grover, then in command of the regiment, was killed and Capt.
John F. Cook, who took his place, performed his duty faithfully. In that battle
it lost, killed and wounded, eighteen officers and one hundred fifty one men.

Captain
S.M. Byram was for a time in command, in September, 1863, when operating on the
Rappahannock and again at North Anna in May, 1864, and along during subsequent
operations until in the fight in front of Petersburg June 18 he received a
severe wound and did not again rejoin the regiment. The last report of the 76th
as an organization, then containing only a handful of the men who enlisted in
Cortland in '61, was on Jan. 15, 1865, when it was commanded by Capt. E. B.
Cochrane.

When the
76th started for Washington its organization was as follows: Field and Staff
Officers-Colonel, N. W. Green of Cortland; lieutenant-colonel, John
D. Shaul of Springfield, Otsego Co.; Major Charles H. Livingston of New York
City; surgeon, J. C. Nelson of Truxton; assistant surgeon, George W. Metcalfe
of Otsego Co.; chaplain, H. Stone Richardson of New York Mills; adjutant, Heman
F. Robinson of Cortland; quartermaster, A. P. Smith of Cortland; quartermaster
sergeant, Albert J. Jarvis of Cortland; commissary sergeant, William Stows of
Allegany.